Love Thinks

Hello good people, this past Sunday morning the Lord woke me up around 4:30 and I began to meditate on how LOVE does not take account or keep records of wrongs. As I laid in the bed I determined, when I got fully up, to locate the scripture and take a deeper look at it. Allow me to share what the Lord shared with me. Here we go...
The Apostle Paul begins his discussion on the exercising of your ministry giftedness through love in I Corinthians 13. Most of us immediately recognize this chapter as the "Love" chapter. It's refreshing because, for a quick evaluation of your love walk, you can start here anytime! Thank God for such a powerful written "love" road map! Besides, as Kingdom citizens, we should be performing scriptural self-evaluations on a consistent basis.

Now, first Corinthians, chapter thirteen (13); verse five (5) says this:

LOVE...doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, or thinketh no evil;

What the Lord showed me revolves around the last portion of the scripture - "thinketh no evil". On the surface, this portion of the scripture suggests that love doesn't spend countless hours studying or meditating on evil ideas, wrongs done, bad treatment, offences, and such like. This is a great start for anyone! In other words, it's a complete waste or abuse rather, of time, energy, and capacity to focus much on evil ideas and how you've been mistreated. Candidly, if the truth be told we haven't always treated others especially well either. Sometimes harvest returns to us in unfamiliar places (Galatians 6:7). Nevertheless, this is not the central idea of this verse.

Upon further review of the verse, particularly in the original Greek language, the phrase "thinketh no evil" is rendered "take not account or not impute evil". The word "thinketh" means to take an inventory, estimate, reason or conclude. Therefore Paul is saying that love, specifically the agape love of God (which all believers possess - Romans 5:5) does NOT:  (1) take inventory of wrongs done, bad treatment, or offences similar to how retail stores do when restocking merchandise. Nor does it (2) estimate, reason, infer, or conclude evil motives/actions in a situation where all facts are clearly unknown. Therefore, allowing for the benefit of the doubt (believeth all things - verse 7) is the natural spiritual progression.

So the main idea is this: love ACTUALLY DOES think, take inventory, and/or concludes (as the original Greek language suggest), but NOT OF EVIL, but OF GOOD. Love, being God Himself, takes account of, records, concludes, on the good done. This is exactly how God interacts with us even though we're imperfect. His thoughts towards us are continually good, even when we sin (Jeremiah 29:11). His focus is never consistently on where we've erred but on what we've done well (Psalms 103:12). Therefore since God is the creator and master of love, He is our prime example! Plan to implement His loving approach toward others and continually reevaluate how you're doing.

Begin reflecting on the good done for and toward you. Thank God and someone again today, even if it's been years since they did good towards you! It has been said that people don't have to be nice, but when they do; be grateful for more than a minute. No man is an island to himself, nor is that man on an island with just God! God is indeed great to us personally and through the aid of people!

"Doeth It Not"

James 4:17 says, "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin."

In this verse James is speaking briefly about the sin of "OMISSION". James is calling the believer's attention to the fact that when doing right is omitted, it is sin - especially when the right thing to do is known. Doing 'no thing' in a situation where 'some thing' ought to be done is sin. Of course we should remain sensitive to the Holy Spirit for guidance because it is possible to know what to do but not know exactly how to do it in a given situation. That's where the leading of the Holy Spirit comes in.

Now from another angle, isn't it interesting how easy it is to judge our actions (or non-actions) against the actions or non-actions of others. Consider statements like: "I don't do this", "I don't do that", "I wouldn't do that if", or "I've never done." If we be honest, if faced with the right amount of pressure and/or circumstance we really don't know what we would or wouldn't do. Quickly look at what James says in verse 12: "There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?"

Sure, it's great when we omit to do wrong, but what about when we omit to do right? Especially when we've been made aware of the right thing to be done.

Moreover, we all have much Kingdom related work to do. Undoubtedly, if we are spending priceless time judging others and/or ourselves against others we surely can't be getting a whole lot accomplished on our end. Judging and comparing is a big distraction!

"When we keep a 'sin-flashlight' shined on someone else we cease to perform our own God-assigned tasks."

No one has received the anointed appointment by God to be the judge in His stead, therefore all judges robes should be put away. This has to be a personal periodic examination activity because that judges robe can find its way back into your wardrobe easily. We know that within our flesh dwells nothing good (Romans 7:18). Therefore, with our sword in hand (the Word of God), we must wound the flesh wherever we find it alive. Thus, we'll be dying to self, so Christ can be freely expressed.

In the Service of the King,

DSW